Ukrainian Interior Minister Arseniy Avakov has said that the death of a National Guard member as a result of clashes outside the Verkhovna Rada was caused not by a bullet but a piece of shrapnel; the person who launched the grenade, a Svoboda member from Sych, has been arrested.

"The slain soldier Debrin, 25 years old from Kherson, it was a piece of shrapnel not a bullet, in his heart. The arrested grenadier is a Svoboda member from Sych," the minister wrote on Twitter.

He wrote on Facebook earlier: "One National Guard soldier has been killed, a bullet injury in the heart. They thought it was a piece of shrapnel but someone was also shooting on the quiet."

For his part, a People's Front parliamentarian and former advisor to the Ukrainian Interior Minister Anton Heraschenko wrote on his Facebook page that the autopsy results revealed that the National Guard soldier had died as a result of being hit by a piece of a combat grenade.

"The forensic expert has just updated information with the autopsy results. The National Guard soldier died after being hit by a piece of a combat grenade that ripped his chest apart," the deputy wrote.

Both Avakov and Heraschenko claimed earlier that the National Guard soldier had died as a result of a bullet injury.

The Sych special-purpose battalion was set up by the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.

The slain soldier, Ihor Debrin, was 25 years old from the Kherson region, a conscript from the spring draft campaign, Heraschenko said.